Five arrested during No Refusal weekend

Police netted five drunken driving arrests over the weekend as part of the first No Refusal weekend.

Leslie Fark and Andy Kravetz

Calling the city’s first No Refusal weekend "experimental," Peoria Police Chief Steven Settingsgaard said he was pleased with the results, but saw room for improvement in future endeavors.

Five people were arrested for driving under the influence during the holiday weekend, with two refusing to submit to breath or blood tests. As promised last week by Peoria County State’s Attorney Kevin Lyons and the chief, prosecutors were summoned to the police station and two warrants were obtained from a judge to order the collection of blood for use as evidence.

"Both were successfully executed and both suspects ending up giving blood samples voluntarily," Settingsgaard said. "One of the suspects that we ended up drawing blood from had a prior conviction so this new conviction will be very important as far as punishment from the courts."

Last week, the chief and Lyons announced the No Refusal weekend, saying they weren’t going to let drivers get the "last word" on the collection of evidence in a DUI case. Under state law, a motorist can refuse but it’s assumed he has given consent to such a test. Failure to submit results is a mandatory license suspension.

Settingsgaard said if blood had not been drawn, the motorist, who was stopped shortly after 2:30 a.m. Saturday, may have escaped another conviction and likely eluded higher penalties for the offense.

"For those to kick in you need convictions," he said. "Without blood, without breath, it’s much more difficult to get a conviction."

The other instance, which occurred about 11 p.m. Saturday, involved a pickup truck, allegedly driven by a drunken driver, colliding with another car, said Seth Uphoff, an administrative prosecutor with Lyons’ office.

Uphoff was one of two prosecutors who was assigned to type up warrants and review the cases for the police. Like the chief, he said he was pleased with the results, noting how all parties involved — his office, police and Advanced Medical Transport — worked together.

Only one extra officer in conjunction with traffic officers was used in the program each evening. Drunken driving grant money was used to pay the officer’s overtime.

Obtaining the warrants, Uphoff said, took about an hour from the time he was called by an officer until they returned from the judge’s house.

"It was an experimental weekend," Settingsgaard said. "We knew there would be improvements to make. I think we can streamline the process to be a bit quicker in the future. It was our first try at it for both the state’s attorney, the judges and us so we expect that next time we will be quicker at it than we were this time."

The chief believed more No Refusal weekends would occur this summer, and with the exception of Fourth of July and Labor Day holidays, those will be unannounced.

"We might do one on a week night or regular weekend," Settingsgaard said. "Part of it is we don’t want drivers to know we’re running these. The whole idea is to get people to comply to a breath sample."

Leslie Fark can be reached at (309) 686-3188 or lfark@pjstar.com. Andy Kravetz can be reached at (309) 686-3283 or akravetz@pjstar.com.